Channing Tatum on Magic Mike the Musical, His New Orleans Bar (It’s Not a Strip Club!), and Dancing Around the House with Jenna Dewan

At a party Saturday night for his movie 10 Years, Channing Tatum talked to Vanity Fair about producing films, high school, his soon-to-open bar in New Orleans, and progress on the Magic Mike Broadway musical. While he says he won’t be dancing on the stage at his new bar, you might just see him busting some moves there anyway. “I dance everywhere I go, for fun,” he told us. And sure enough, he was dancing away while playing host at the Grey Goose–sponsored party at Macao in New York.

__Bennett Marcus: 10 Years__was the first movie you produced. How did that come about?

Channing Tatum: You know, to be honest, we didn’t really plan on being producers or even working in that field, because it’s hard to even understand what a producer actually does; it’s so many things. But, really, how this came about was [director Jamie Linden] and I were on the set of Dear John, and it just so happened to be the year that we both had our reunions. I couldn’t go to mine, and he got to go to his, and when he came back, we talked about it.

And it was really interesting to talk about all the different people that he got to see again, and all the different dynamics between them. And then from there, it just sort of dawned on us, because we are always talking about how we want to make things . . . different. You know, we don’t want to just be like, “Hey, studios, what do you guys want to make?”

And you guys were drinking on the set, which was in a bar. Was that the first time you’ve had that experience?

Uh, unfortunately no. [Laughs.] I’ve been on a few movies that I had some pretty, uh, Method-acting actors that I had to follow. Not like this movie, though.

Chris Pratt’s character was apologizing for being an asshole in high school. What were you like in high school? Anything make you cringe when you think about your high-school experience?

No. I definitely was not Chris Pratt at all. I had a girlfriend for basically the whole time I was in high school, my high-school sweetheart. I played football. I wasn’t prom king. I got voted “most athletic” because I really liked football, and that was about it. I kind of was a little bit under the radar.

You are opening a bar in New Orleans. Why do that?

My dad’s from New Orleans, you know. I grew up 45 minutes east of New Orleans, in Mississippi in a little shrimping town, and I’ve always been enamored by New Orleans. And I went back to work, and I just got re-in-sort-of-toxified by it. And my family did as well; my mom and dad are moving back. It’s sort of a calling card for us. We just went back and fell completely back in love with it. It’s a special place down there. It’s really got so much history. It’s one of those places that has a really old, rich, diverse sort of culture and community. I’m totally intrigued by it.

Are you going to break out your Step Up moves down there at the bar?

It’s not a strip club.

Your dancing! Not stripping.

Look, I dance everywhere I go, but I mean, for fun. Nah, but just to clarify, because I know it’s been in the press that we’re opening a strip club: it’s not a strip club. It’s just a bar. There is going to be, like, burlesque dancing and stuff, at times.

Burlesque?

Burlesque. The building that we’re leasing used to be an old bordello. It used to be like a Storyville; Storyville used to be the red-light district of New Orleans, back in the day. So we’re kind of like trying to revamp and bring the history back, and kind of remind New Orleans of what it is.

Any updates on the Magic Mike Broadway musical?

We’re dying to do it. It’s just not our venue, you know? I don’t know how to do it. I’ve never done anything like that. So it’s a slow process, making sure that we have everything in place. But we’re writing on it now. I’m hoping that it will get really, truly up and running in this next year. I’m not sure about [a second film]. I’m really, really not. We don’t have our captain anymore, you know. Soderbergh’s actually really done-done. So we’re kind of like a ship that’s meandering in the ocean right now.

And anything to report on 21 Jump Street 2?

We’re writing. Got to get the script, because, you know, that’s the thing: everybody wants it, but it takes time to write something good. Because everybody’s always so disappointed in the sequels. You know, it’s the stigma of never, ever having a good sequel. You don’t want the audience to lose the mindset of wanting to go see it, you know, so you try to hurry. And we’re trying not to hurry; we’re trying to make it good. We’ll see.

Your wife, Jenna, told me that she dances around the house. You’re both dancers—do you dance around the house?

I don’t know a lot of people that actually don’t dance around the house, but [most people won’t] admit it. But yeah, of course. [Laughs.]

I saw you dancing to the music just now, while you and Jenna were behind the bar, mixing up Grey Goose cocktails.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I dance. If the music’s in you, the music’s in you. [Laughs.]